Orwell’s bleak vision of the future makes for a chilling and brilliant night of theatre. With just six weeks to run, Samantha Laurie reviews an unmissable 1984, at Playhouse Theatre
Manuel Harlan
Winston Smith lives in a world where the ability to hold two contradictory beliefs simultaneously is prized, where fiction and fact are indistinguishable, and where a society controlled by screens, subject to constant surveillance, endures a daily broadcast of Two Minutes’ Hate. Orwell’s dystopian novel is always chilling, but in the current political climate it seems particularly discomforting.
This brilliant and stylish adaptation from writer-directors Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan remains faithful to the classic whilst introducing a clever new twist. The story is framed as if being discussed by a group of academics (or a book club) in the present day using the appendix to the novel as its starting point. It’s a technique that emphasizes the unreliability of the novel – how can text have any authority if it’s been messed with? How can we trust words to deliver information?– as well as posing questions about the kind of society that has emerged post-1984.
Manuel Harlan
From the minute Winston Smith, played superbly by Andrew Gower, puts forbidden pen to paper, his hellish fate is sealed. Big Brother is on to him. It’s a fast, furious and highly stylized production - flashing lights, live video projections and deafening explosions ratchet up the tension for an audience already on the edge of its seats. We eavesdrop on Winston and Julia (Catrin Stewart) via a projected videolink as they try to find love in the tiny back room of the antiques shop. When the computerized voice of Big Brother exposes the lovers with a shocking – “You are the dead” – it is a harrowing moment, then followed by a tumble into the grim torture scenes of Room 101.
There’s no interval – just 101 minutes (of course) as the play hurtles towards its conclusion. The small cast double up as modern day academics and puppets of the Party state with gripping performances from the leads (Gower, Stewart and Gerard Gilroy as O’Brien) and moving portrayals of ‘unpersoned’ Syme by Joshua Higgot and Anthony O’Donnell as Parsons.
With three West End runs and a sell-out international tour, this highly-acclaimed co-production between The Almeida Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse and Headlong has its last performance on October 29 at the Playhouse Theatre. Don’t miss it!
To book tickets visit 1984theplay.co.uk
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